Goals of the Program

To make Wikimania 2012 a successful and productive international conference.

To support the Wikimedia projects by encouraging participation.

To enrich the conference with attendance by a diverse group of participants in the Wikimedia movement.

About Application for Scholarship

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Eligibility (who can apply for a scholarship): Any active contributor to a Wikimedia project and/or Wikimedia volunteer in any other capacity, from anywhere in the world, is considered eligible. Participants in other free knowledge, free software, collaborative and/or educational initiatives are also encouraged to apply.

Selection: All applications for scholarship are reviewed by the Scholarship review committee. Criteria for selecting Scholarship recipients were determined by the Scholarships Review Committee in accordance with the goals and focus areas of Wikimania and Wikimedia. See “Scholarship Selection" below for more detail on selection criteria and process.

Deadline for submission: The scholarship application deadline was February 16, 2012, at 23:59:59 UTC. We notified applicants on April 20 on the results of their application.

For more information about the Wikimania 2012 Scholarships Program, please visit the FAQ page.

Process

The Scholarships Review Committee rates scholarships applicants based on a standardized set of criteria. The timeline for the scholarship program was as follows:

January 16 – February 16, 2012 – Scholarship application open

January – April, 2012 – Scholarship committee reviews applications

April 20, 2012 – Applicants were notified about final decisions

The WMF Scholarships will be roughly allocated across the regions of the world in the following manner:

The same Selection Criteria (see below) will be used in rating all scholarship applications, but the applications will be compared against the applicants within the region. The Scholarship Committee reserves the right to deviate from these benchmarks, pending lack of qualified applicants.

Types of scholarships

Both partial and full scholarships will be available for Wikimania 2012.

Partial Scholarships: an award of 300 euros for travel expenses to Wikimania.

The same selection criteria will be used for both types of recipients. On the scholarship application, please indicate your willingness to accept a partial scholarship. As we are not screening applications for financial ability, we are assuming that all who check partial scholarship would be willing to take the partial scholarship to provide those with less resources the opportunity to attend Wikimania.

Selection Criteria 2012

Selection Criteria: Main Criteria

Activity in Wikimedia movement (on-wiki and off-wiki)

Activity outside of Wikimedia (in compatible organizations)

Future goals for participating in the Wikimedia movement

Applicants will be rated on the three dimensions:
(A) Current/historic level of participation in Wikimedia (50% of total score),
(B) Current/historic level of participation in other free knowledge, free software, collaborative and/or educational initiatives (15% of total score), and
(C) Future goals for participating in the Wikimedia movement (35% of total score)

Active within Wikimedia (50%)

Applicants active within Wikimedia are those highly engaged participants in the Wikimedia Projects: editors, Wikimedians, and community members who will add value to Wikimania through their experience, knowledge, and dedication in online and/or offline activities, like involvement with chapter activities, meetups, etc. To highlight this, applicants could write about their experiences participating in online Wikipedia activities (such as editing) and offline Wikipedia activities (such as meet-ups, GLAM, and Campus Ambassador program).

4 = Very high level participant, defined by continued involvement and high impact in two or more projects, chapter or Wikimedia initiative (or as the reviewers judge "very high level")

3 = High level participant, defined by continued involvement and high impact in one or more projects, chapter or Wikimedia initiative (or as the reviewer judge "high level")

2 = Mid level participant, defined by continued involvement and average impact in one or more projects, chapter or Wikimedia initiative (or as the reviewer judge "mid level")

1 = Low level participant, defined by relatively new account, few edits, and little or no involvement in any Wikimedia project or initiative.

0 = Not a participant, defined by a brand new account, or almost no edits, and no involvement in any Wikimedia project or initiative.

Activity outside Wikimedia (15%)

Activity outside of Wikimedia measures applicants relevant activity outside of the the Wikimedia movement. This includes other activities relating to ICT4D, Free Software, education institutions, etc. These participants may exhibit qualities of innovation, participation in other aspects of the free culture/open source movement.

It is a measure for those who have shown potential to add value to the Wikimedia projects and movement, who can enhance and build on this potential at/by Wikimania, and who can disseminate what they learn at Wikimania to their respective communities. If applicable, applicants could write about their experiences with other comparable organizations.

4 = High level participant, defined by involvement in other free knowledge, free software, collaborative or educational initiative with very high potential to benefit Wikimedia.

3 = Mid to high level participant, defined by involvement in other free knowledge, free software, collaborative or educational initiative with high potential to benefit Wikimedia.

0 = Not a participant, defined by no involvement in other free knowledge, free software, collaborative or educational initiatives.

Future goals for participating in the Wikimedia movement (35%)

Applicants are expected to have concrete goals for how attendance at Wikimania will impact their future involvement in the Wikimedia movement. Applicants should expound upon why they are interested in attending Wikimania: what input they can bring to the conference and what they hope to glean from it.

4 = Very strong desire to be involved with the Wikimedia movement going forward; specific, concrete ideas for how applicant's unique skills, styles, and interests can be incorporated into and enhance the Wikimedia movement

3 = Strong desire to be involved with the Wikimedia movement going forward; a few less developed ideas about how applicant's unique skills, styles, and interests can be incorporated into and enhance the Wikimedia movement

2 = Some desire to be involved with the Wikimedia movement going forward; vague and under-developed ideas for how applicant's unique skills, styles, and interests can be incorporated into and enhance the Wikimedia movement

1 = Low or unclear desire to be involved with the Wikimedia movement going forward; unclear and non-thoughtful ideas for how applicant's unique skills, styles, and interests can be incorporated into and enhance the Wikimedia movement

0 = No anticipated involvement with Wikimedia in the future

Chapter Scholarships

Several Wikimedia Chapters provide extra scholarships for participants from their geographical region.

Applications will all be collected through the central scholarship website and later distributed to the chapters. Scholarships which are not approved by chapters will go back to the global scholarship pool.

6 partial scholarships, of up to 900,000 HUF (about USD 3,600) in total, to cover flight, accommodation and registration costs. Scholarships will be used to complement international partial scholarships and to help those who do not get an international scholarship. (For residents in Hungary.)